Avonglen School District No. 3975
Avonglen School District #3975 was organized in 1920. Members of the
first school board were: Mr. Jesse Allen, Mr. Joseph Carrington, and Mr.
Burton Haun. Mrs. R.D. Allen acted as secretary-treasurer.
Built in 1921, on a corner of land purchased from Burton Haun, on the SW ¼ 2-47-8 W4, by Mr. J. Craig Sr., the cost was $3000. School opened on October 1, 1921 with Miss Nellie McTavish of Edmonton as the first teacher. Some of the original students at Avonglen were: Gladys Haun, A.E. (Buck) Haun, John Haun, Maynard, Delbert and Florence Allen, Helen Ballentine, George and Frank Ford, Arnold girls, the Shott girls, and John, Killian and Donald Goodwin. Margaret (Shotts) Clifford of Wainwright attended Avonglen for nine years.
Teachers following Miss McTavish were: Lolo Mabey, Dorothy Bramley- Moore, Marjorie Bennett, Olive (Rush) Sather, Orril (Fischer) Darling, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. C. Ballentine, Miss Bates, Miss Anne Kippen, Miss Lily Lakusta, Cliff Shelton, Ann Coultman (supervisor), Miss Agnes Grieve, Mary Prosser, Kathleen Younker, Miss Louise Best, and Keith Wakefield. Inspectors were Mr. L. Goode, Mr. H.T. Coutts and Mr. S.D. Simonson. Later school board members were William New, A.E. Haun, William Goodwin, John Ballentine and Gerald Allen.
There was always some entertainment at Avonglen - dances to raise funds for the Red Cross, pick-up ball games, picnics and bazaars to raise money to pay for the orchestras, picnic supplies and concerts. The Avonglen Gospel Mission held services there. From 1944 to 1948 the school children went to surrounding schools to practice ball so that they could enter the games meet in Irma; then the Irma winners would compete in Wainwright against the surrounding Wainwright schools. This was a big day for all involved.
The school was very cold in winter and very hot in summer. After the fire was lit at eight o’clock, it took an hour to warm up the building. Desks were pulled close to the heater to keep children warm. Inkwells or bottles which were frozen were thawed out by holding in the hands until the ink thawed enough to be able to use a pen. The outhouses, one for the boys and one for the girls, were on the far corners of the playground. The teachers knew that in minus thirty degree weather there would be little time wasted out there!
Some of the students on the register were: Barbara, Marvin, Joyce and Laura Bartee; Eric June and Edna Dallow; Garry Goodale; Harry, Martha and Bob Goodwin; Irene, George and Darwin Lambert; Francis, Gerald, Fred, Alfred, Eileen, Marie, Rita, Oscar and Clair Meyer; Elsworth (Dub) Allen as well as his children Charles, Florence, Carol and Doug Allen; and Gerald Allen’s family, Doris Carleen, Jesse and Lowell.
Other children were transferred from Passchendale, Alma Mater and Education Point because at times their home school had no teacher. In the year 1952, Avonglen School was closed and the children were bussed to the Passchendale Consolidated School (the old Irma High School). When Passchendale was closed in 1959, the majority of the Avonglen students were bussed to Irma by the late Mr. Frank Ford.
The Avonglen school building was still used by the Avonglen Gospel Mission until it was moved to the Albert district to become the east room of the four-roomed Albert School.
Avonglen School District No. 3975
From “Down Memory Lane” submitted by Margaret Clifford
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